A potpourri of interesting current events, new products, humor and just plain fun, so pull up a chair and stay a while.If your favorite post has disappeared out of sight, you can find it by selecting a category from the left hand side bar.

*

I am Perry Peterson, a retired auditor and tax accountant. My wife Valeta and I live along the front range of the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Please note: some of the links in older postings on this website may have expired by the time you see them.

c

June 30, 2016

Modern Meadow, a Brooklyn-based startup company has biofabricated leather.

Leather, which represents a $100-billion raw material market, has always been prized for its beauty, functionality and enduring status," said Modern Meadow chief executive officer and co-founder Andras Forgacs in a press release.

"At Modern Meadow, we're re-imagining this millennia-old material to create revolutionary new features without harming animals or the environment."

To make the biofabricated leather, which is biologically identical to leather from an actual cow, the company develops collagen proteins from living animal cells. That collagen is then structured into a material that replicates natural leather.

A report at the link below says texting has created an entirely new rhythm within our brains.

According to a new study, sending a text message or using an iPad can change the rhythm of a person's brain waves, creating a unique 'texting rhythm' that's never been seen before.

The researchers say this could be attributed to the small screens, which require more concentration, and argue that these findings provide a 'biological reason' for why people shouldn't text behind the wheel.

June 29, 2016

The Ark Encounter, featuring a 510-foot-long replica of Noah's Ark, is expected to open in Williamstown, Kentucky in July, but don't go expecting to see pair after pair of animals.

Instead, there will be a petting zoo, as well as a future expansion with a first-century Middle Eastern village and a Tower of Babel.

The group behind the attraction, Answers in Genesis, is a "young Earth creationist group," The Guardian reports, meaning it believes that God created the Earth in six days about 6,000 years ago.

So far, they have raised $23.5 million in donations to go towards the $90 million price tag. When all is said and done, the group said the ark "should become the largest timber-frame structure in the USA," and will see 1.6 million visitors in the first year.

The Ark Encounter is affiliated with the Creation Museum 45 minutes away, which has a Garden of Eden area where "children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden's rivers."

What's happening today to pollinators is no different than what happened 50 years ago with the collapse of the bald eagle due to the use of DDT.

From a report at the link below:

Advocating for a ban on toxic pesticides that have led to massive bee die-offs nationwide, a truck filled with millions of the dead pollinators has trundled across the country to reach its final destination on Wednesday afternoon: the front steps of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The truck's arrival at EPA headquarters heralds a rally in which environmental groups, beekeepers, organic food advocates and others will "deliver over 4 million signatures urging an immediate ban on bee-killing pesticides" to the agency, writes the conservation group Friends of the Earth.

Gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals reported more health problems than straight men and women, in a large U.S. survey.

For the first time since its launch in 1957, the National Health Interview Survey in 2013 and 2014 included a question about sexual orientation.

With nearly 69,000 participants, the survey revealed that lesbian, gay and bisexual adults "were more likely to report impaired physical and mental health, heavy alcohol consumption, and heavy cigarette use, potentially due to the stressors that (they) experience as a result of interpersonal and structural discrimination," researchers wrote online June 28 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson (pictured) is quite a character in British politics, and now stands to step into the highest office in the land after Cameron’s resignation in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Boris was elected to Parliament in 2001 and as mayor of London in 2008.

Boris Johnson, 52, is quite a character in British politics, and now stands to step into the highest office in the land after Cameron’s resignation in the wake of the Brexit vote.

A federal judge appointed by President Obama struck down the administration’s regulation on hydraulic fracturing on federal lands last week, ruling that the Interior Department does not have congressional authority to regulate fracking.

The decision is a major loss for the administration, which worked for years to update its oil and natural gas drilling regulations to account for dramatic increases and innovations in fracking.

These ‘losses’ for the president come when he seems to be running out of time to find almost anything that will help his legacy.
Link